Italian eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti was fortunate to escape disqualification during his French Open quarter-final match against Frances Tiafoe, despite kicking a ball that made contact with a line judge.
During the second set of the match, which Musetti eventually won 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, he struck a ball in frustration with his foot. The ball hit the line judge, who was standing a few meters away, in the chest. Tiafoe, the 15th seed, appeared visibly surprised on the opposite side of the court and gestured towards the umpire. Musetti was ultimately given a code violation for the action.
Tiafoe later commented on the incident, stating, “He did that, and nothing happened. I think that`s comical, but it is what it is. Since nothing occurred, there`s nothing much to discuss. Obviously, there`s an inconsistency in how these things are handled.”
Musetti, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and has now made it to the last four at Roland Garros for the first time, shared his reaction: “Honestly, I was a little bit scared because I truly didn`t want to harm anyone, of course. I immediately went over to the line umpire and apologized to her and everyone else. A warning was fair, but I believe the umpire saw that there was no intent to injure, which is likely why he allowed me to continue playing.”
It`s worth noting that the French Open is the only one of the four major Grand Slam tournaments that still uses human line judges instead of relying on electronic line calling technology.
Former British No. 1 Tim Henman, covering the tournament, explained the rules: “According to the rulebook, if you hit or kick a ball away in frustration and it strikes a ball kid, line judge, or umpire, it *can* lead to a disqualification. Looking at the situation, the umpire could have interpreted it that way. However, if Musetti had been disqualified for that, he would feel very unlucky and hard done by.”
Henman added, “When you kick a ball away, you either need to be better at controlling where it goes, like a footballer, or you are running the risk of something like this happening.”
Alcaraz Dominates Paul to Set Up Semi-Final Against Musetti
In the other quarter-final, Musetti`s next opponent will be the defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz convincingly defeated American 12th seed Tommy Paul in a one-sided evening match with a score of 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.
“I`m sorry if you were hoping to watch more tennis. I just had to do my job,” Alcaraz told the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier after his swift victory.
Paul appeared to be struggling physically, with his right thigh heavily taped. This seemed to hinder his ability to run, serve, and hit groundstrokes with full power. As a result, Alcaraz needed only 52 minutes to take the first two sets, establishing a dominant 23-5 lead in winners during that period. The final winner count was 40-13 in favour of Alcaraz.
The third set offered slightly more resistance, with Paul even leading 4-3 and receiving vocal support from some spectators. However, Alcaraz quickly won the final three games to wrap up the match in just over 90 minutes total.
